Cebu Pacific dominates skies in first semester

BUDGET airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) remained the country’s leading carrier for the first six months of the year.

Latest data from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed CEB carried 214,000 more passengers than Philippine Airlines for the period – or 5.096 million passengers for combined domestic and international traffic versus PAL’s 4.882 million passengers.

On the other hand, Air Philippines Express serviced 667,686 passengers; Zest Air, formerly known as Asian Spirit, had 623,529 passengers; and Seair, 132,638.

CEB had a domestic air travel market share of 48.7%, and carried 1.2 million passengers more than its closest competitor PAL.

International passenger base grew 26% due to robust positions in Asian destinations, such as Osaka in Japan, Seoul (Incheon) in Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Macau.

CEB vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog said the airline’s continued expansion in Asia and in the Philippines coupled with its trademark low fares have stimulated travel and tourism.

“It also enabled affordable and accessible business travel opportunities for many small and medium enterprises. This is proof of our commitment to nation-building in making the Philippines a vibrant investment and tourism destination,” Iyog said.

“We expect to further boost our combined domestic and international traffic in the last quarter of the year as we take delivery of three brand-new Airbus A320 aircraft,” she added.

The new planes will be used for additional flights to Kota Kinabalu, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Seoul (Incheon).

The airline currently offers the most number of flights, routes, and destinations from the Philippines to ASEAN region.

CEB operates the youngest aircraft fleet in the country with 10 Airbus A319, 11 Airbus A320 and 8 ATR 72-500 aircraft. It operates in the country with 33 domestic and 16 international destinations.